If you are contemplating divorce or separation from your partner, your first concern will probably be about where your children will live and how they retain contact with both parents.

When you separate from each other, you will both continue to be parents. Therefore, it is important to make sure that the process of unravelling your marriage or relationship doesn't stop you being able to co-operate on what is best for your children. A constructive approach through the divorce or separation will lay the best foundations for the children to feel settled with the new family relationships. This is exactly where the approach taken by the Jones Myers team will work well for you.

You know your children and so you will be best able to consider the effects of your break-up on them and together devise the most suitable living arrangements. Negotiation is important, as agreements reached together are more likely to work in the long term and be respected by the wider family.

If you can't agree on the arrangements, you can ask the court to decide the matter. We will advise you on the best way of doing this, without letting matters relating to children get tangled up in any financial disputes.

Mediation may assist both parents to understand the problems and to resolve these difficulties.

Rather than considering the 'rights' of parents, family law talks of 'parental responsibility' for a child. If a child's parents were married when the child was born, both will have parental responsibility for the child. For all children born after the 1 December 2003 a father who is not married to the child's mother will acquire parental responsibility if he jointly registers the child's birth.

Whatever your situation, at Jones Myers LLP, we are here to help.